Qur'an alone
Encyclopedia
Quranism is an Islamic denomination
that holds the Qur'an
to be the only canonical text in Islam
. Quranists reject the religious authority of Hadith
and often Sunnah
, libraries compiled by later scholars who catalogued narratives of what the Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said and done, which orthodox Muslims such as Shias and Sunnis consider essential for the Islamic faith.
" / "hadith rejectors"), or Quranism, or Quran aloners, as well as other terms. Quranists may deride Sunni and Shia Muslims by referring to them as 'hadithists' and 'hadith-followers'.
and refused it for many reasons, the most prevalent being that hadith is not mentioned in the Quran as a source of Islamic theology
and practice, was not recorded in written form until more than two centuries after the death of the prophet Muhammed, its perceived internal errors and contradictions, and repudiate fatwas on a hadith's authenticity and issues emanating from them.
Because of a lack of authoritative clergy in Quranism, ijtihad
(independent reasoning) rather than institutionalised taqleed (imitation) is the most common method in use by Quranists.
1. The shahada (statement of faith). The Qur'an only mentions 'lâ ilâha illallâh' so in general most Quranist followers, but not all, say 'lâ ilâha illallâh' (No God but God) rather than the Sunni lâ ilâha illallâh, Muḥammadur rasûlullâh (no god but God, Muhammad is His Prophet) or Shia lâ ilâha illallâh, Muḥammadur rasûlullâh, wa Ali unwali ullah (no god but God, Muhammad is His Prophet, Ali is God's regent).
2 A menstruating Quranist woman may perform salat (prayer), enter a mosque and touch a quran, as the quran only forbids menstruating women from sexual intercourse or marrying a new man within the first three menstrual cycles of leaving her husband, the Quran offering no further mention of menstruation-related prohibitions.
3 Some Quranists combine 5 prayers into 3 prayers like Shias, although some pray 5 times like Sunnis. Quranists also do not pray the Tarawih
.
4 The amount of zakat
(alms). Hadithists provide 2.5% of their wealth in a prescribed manner and formulas based on secondary-sources, whilst a quranist is held accountable to give the "Excess" that he/she has.
5 Circumcision
, either male or female, plays no role in Quranist theology, per ayahs and .
6 Orthodox Muslims are encouraged to dress in the way of the prophet Muhammad or his wives. Clothing rules plays no part in Quranist theology other than that the person dress modestly as surah
24:30–31 says. For example hijab
s or beards are not necessary.
7 Quranists do not hold that breastfeeding a non-related adult male will make him mahram
, whilst some Sunni Muslim scholars have said it does; see rada (fiqh)
8 Quranists generally do not believe in the emergence of the Imam Mahdi
or dajjal
, since they're not mentioned in the Quran.
9 Quranists can eat food produced by Christians and Jews, as instructed in surah 5:5. Also Quranists can eat/drink with both hands, as there is no prohibitations of eating with your left hand in the Quran, in contrast to orthodox muslims who generally forbid using the left hand. This is because the right had is cosidered cleaner due to the tradition of using the left hand in order to clean oneself after having used the toilet.
10 Quranists do not touch the black stone of the kaaba
during hajj or umrah.
Liberal movements within Islam
include Quranists who interpret Islam as "a belief system committed to the liberal values of a democratic world" under narrow Hudud (Arabic حدود). Other quranists remain orthodox in their approach to human rights and broader in the application of rules and punishments, supporting punishments such as amputation of the hand for theft, cruficixion, amputation and execution of enemies
Most Quranists accept the same Arabic Quran used by other Muslims, with only the minority 'submitter' sect reverting to what they claim is the original Quran by removing ayats 9:128-9 to fit their 'Quran Code 19' theology.
Quranist groups are increasingly translating the Arabic Quran themselves into other languages, because most translations by orthodox Muslim groups contain perceived innovations and mistranslations to fit the orthodox ideology. Orthodox Qurans are replete with bracketed comments — based on the sunnah — throughout the ayats to lead the reader to interpret the Quran by the way of the translator, even though the bracketed comments are absent from the Arabic Quran, and such bracketed comments appear less frequently — if at all — in Quranist translations.
Some Muslims have suggested that the original prohibition against Hadith led to the Golden Age of Islam, as the Quran was able to stand up to critical thinking and questioning; and Muslims were thus schooled to be inquisitive and seek answers to every quandary. They posit that the increased reliance on Hadith, which was allegedly illogical and required the suspension of disbelief
, led to the eventual downfall of scholastic pursuits in the religion.
he forbade the writing down of hadiths.
Syed Ahmed Khan
(1817–1898) is often considered the founder of the modernist movement within Islam, noted for his application of "rational science" to the Quran and Hadith and his conclusion that the Hadith were not legally binding on Muslims. His student, Chiragh ‘Ali, went further, suggesting all the hadith were fabrications.
Ahmed Subhy Mansour
is a recognised Islam
ic scholar and cleric, with expertise in Islamic history, culture, theology, and politics. He founded a small group of Quranists, but was exile
d from Egypt and is now living in the United States as a political refugee.
One of his followers, Egyptian blogger Reda Abdel-Rahman was freed on January 2009 after being detained for a year. Abdel-Rahman was imprisoned for writing blogs that reject the sunnah and hadith, and claimed he was tortured in order to reveal the password to his e-mail. Sheikh Mansour was fired from Al-Azhar University
after expressing his hadith rejector views. One of Mansour's fellow Islamic scholars at Al Azhar University Sheik Jamal Tahir took up the same Quran alone stance.
Edip Yuksel
is a Turkish advocate for the Quraniyoon movement and has gained much attention through his books and speeches.
Mohammed Shahrour also rejects Hadith
and has his own methods of interpreting the Qur'an.
Shabbir Ahmed
is the author of “The Qur’an As It Explains Itself”, or QXP, a non-literal translation of the meaning of the Qur'an in plain English. He interprets the meaning of the words and phrases in Quran by comparing them to other instances where they are used elsewhere in the Qur'an.
The 1986 Malaysian book "Hadith: A Re-evaluation" by Kassim Ahmad was met with controversy and some scholars declared him an apostate from Islam for suggesting that "“the hadith are sectarian, anti-science, anti-reason and anti-women". His students currently run a Quranist magazine.
As many Quranists have a very individualistic interpretation of the Qur'an, rejecting sectarianism and organised religion as a general rule, it is difficult to gather an accurate estimate of the number of Quranists in the world today by doing a study of the Quranist organisations that exist. Another difficulty in determining their prevalence is the possible fear of persecution due to being regarded as apostates
and therefore deserving of the death penalty by many traditional scholars like Yousef Elbadry, Mahmoud Ashour, Mohammed Ra'fat Othman and Mustafa Al-Shak'a.
Non-Muslim scholars of Islam, such as Maurice Bucaille
, John Esposito
, Joseph Schacht
and Cyrus Hamlin
also criticise Hadith.
could receive only one form of revelation (wahy
), and that was the Qur'an
. He argues that the Qur'an was the only record of divine wisdom, the only source of Muhammad
's teachings, and that it superseded the entire corpus of hadith
, which came later. Ahle Quran scholars may use Tafsir
when pursuing the interpretations of the Quran.
The movement was initiated by Ghulam Ahmed Pervez
, a Qur'anic scholar. In his writings and speeches, he re-interpreted Qur'anic verses with little or no emphasis on hadith. Tolu-e-Islam followers do not reject all hadiths; however, they only accept hadiths which "are in accordance with the Quran or do not stain the character of the Prophet or his companions". The organization is loosely controlled. The organization publishes and distributes books, pamphlets, and recordings of Pervez's teachings.
, founder of the United Submitters International
. The group popularized the phrase: The Qur'an, the whole Qur'an, and nothing but the Qur'an. After Khalifa declared himself the Messenger of the Covenant, he was rejected by orthodox scholars as an apostate of Islam. Later, he was assassinated in 1990 by a sunni terrorist group. His followers believe that there is a mathematical structure in the Qur'an, based on the number 19.
theologian and scholar Ibn Abd al-Barr
wrote in his Jami' Bayan al-'Ilm wa Fadlihi (Compendium Exposing the Nature of Knowledge and Its Immense Merit):
Contemporary scholars such as Gibril Haddad
have commented on the apostatic nature of a wholesale denial of the probativeness of the Sunnah according to Sunni Orthodoxy, writing "it cannot be imagined that one reject the entire probativeness of the Sunna and remain a Muslim". In his essay, "The Probativeness of the Sunna", Haddad explains that the foundation of Islam is the Qur'an, which cannot be described as God's word when one unconditionally rejects the probativeness of the Sunna (since the fact that the Qur'an is God's Word was not established by other than Muhammad's explicit statement that this was God's Word and His Book). As this statement is part of the Sunna/Hadith Literature, to say that the Sunna is no proof is no different than a denial of an integral part of the religion according to Haddad. He also quotes from Yusuf ibn abd al-Barr
, Ibn Hazm
as well as other renowned early traditional scholars such as al-Shafi'i
, al-Nawawi, Qadi Ayyad and Ibn Hajar
.
The Grand Mufti of Pakistan Muhammad Rafi Usmani
has also criticised Quranists in his lecture Munkareen Hadith (refuters of Hadith); he states:
In response to criticisms such as the above, Qur'anists point out that the judgments of Muhammad were based solely on the Qur'an (verses 5:48 and 4:105) and that it is what distinguishes right from wrong (verse 2:185), arguing that the need for Hadith and Sunnah are redundant because of their possession of the Qur'an.
Islamic schools and branches
Muslims are basically divided in two major factions, Sunnis and Shias, that are further divided into various Schools of Jurisprudence and orders of Imamate. All other movements within such as Salafi, Modernists, the Mystical Sufi Orders, Deobandi and Barelvi are either Sunni or Shia or both...
that holds the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
to be the only canonical text in Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. Quranists reject the religious authority of Hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
and often Sunnah
Sunnah
The word literally means a clear, well trodden, busy and plain surfaced road. In the discussion of the sources of religion, Sunnah denotes the practice of Prophet Muhammad that he taught and practically instituted as a teacher of the sharī‘ah and the best exemplar...
, libraries compiled by later scholars who catalogued narratives of what the Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said and done, which orthodox Muslims such as Shias and Sunnis consider essential for the Islamic faith.
Etymology
Quranists may be referred to in various ways, for example Qur'āniyūn / Quraniyoon ( ) and / , both translating to "Quranites" (which is also used in English), Submitters, and usually by their opponents (i.e. "negators of HadithHadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
" / "hadith rejectors"), or Quranism, or Quran aloners, as well as other terms. Quranists may deride Sunni and Shia Muslims by referring to them as 'hadithists' and 'hadith-followers'.
Doctrine
Quranists generally consider themselves to simply be "Muslims", a term directly from the Quran. They do not think of themselves as belonging to a sect, like Sunni or Shia, as they do not accept any of the narratives beside the Qur'an, thereby universally rejecting the authoritative status applied to hadith by orthodox Muslims as encoded in the various Sunnahs of the Sunni, Shia and other hadith-following sects in Islam. The extent to which Quranists reject the authenticity of the Sunnah varies, but the more established groups have thoroughly criticised the authenticity of the hadithHadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
and refused it for many reasons, the most prevalent being that hadith is not mentioned in the Quran as a source of Islamic theology
Islamic theology
Islamic theology is a branch of Islamic studies regarding the beliefs associated with the Islamic faith. Any religious belief system, or creed, can be considered an example of aqidah. However, this term has taken a significant technical usage in Islamic history and theology, denoting those...
and practice, was not recorded in written form until more than two centuries after the death of the prophet Muhammed, its perceived internal errors and contradictions, and repudiate fatwas on a hadith's authenticity and issues emanating from them.
Because of a lack of authoritative clergy in Quranism, ijtihad
Ijtihad
Ijtihad is the making of a decision in Islamic law by personal effort , independently of any school of jurisprudence . as opposed to taqlid, copying or obeying without question....
(independent reasoning) rather than institutionalised taqleed (imitation) is the most common method in use by Quranists.
Quranist rejection of orthodox Muslim theology
Differences in doctrine between Quranists and orthodox Muslims are extant from minor matters to the core of central beliefs such as the five pillars of Islam. Example areas of difference are:1. The shahada (statement of faith). The Qur'an only mentions 'lâ ilâha illallâh' so in general most Quranist followers, but not all, say 'lâ ilâha illallâh' (No God but God) rather than the Sunni lâ ilâha illallâh, Muḥammadur rasûlullâh (no god but God, Muhammad is His Prophet) or Shia lâ ilâha illallâh, Muḥammadur rasûlullâh, wa Ali unwali ullah (no god but God, Muhammad is His Prophet, Ali is God's regent).
2 A menstruating Quranist woman may perform salat (prayer), enter a mosque and touch a quran, as the quran only forbids menstruating women from sexual intercourse or marrying a new man within the first three menstrual cycles of leaving her husband, the Quran offering no further mention of menstruation-related prohibitions.
3 Some Quranists combine 5 prayers into 3 prayers like Shias, although some pray 5 times like Sunnis. Quranists also do not pray the Tarawih
Tarawih
Tarawih refers to extra congregational prayers performed by Muslims at night in the Islamic month of Ramadan. They are not compulsory; however, many Muslims pray these prayers in the night during Ramadan...
.
4 The amount of zakat
Zakat
Zakāt , one of the Five Pillars of Islam, is the giving of a fixed portion of one's wealth to charity, generally to the poor and needy.-History:Zakat, a practice initiated by Muhammed himself, has played an important role throughout Islamic history...
(alms). Hadithists provide 2.5% of their wealth in a prescribed manner and formulas based on secondary-sources, whilst a quranist is held accountable to give the "Excess" that he/she has.
5 Circumcision
Circumcision
Male circumcision is the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The word "circumcision" comes from Latin and ....
, either male or female, plays no role in Quranist theology, per ayahs and .
6 Orthodox Muslims are encouraged to dress in the way of the prophet Muhammad or his wives. Clothing rules plays no part in Quranist theology other than that the person dress modestly as surah
Sura
A sura is a division of the Qur'an, often referred to as a chapter. The term chapter is sometimes avoided, as the suras are of unequal length; the shortest sura has only three ayat while the longest contains 286 ayat...
24:30–31 says. For example hijab
Hijab
The word "hijab" or "'" refers to both the head covering traditionally worn by Muslim women and modest Muslim styles of dress in general....
s or beards are not necessary.
7 Quranists do not hold that breastfeeding a non-related adult male will make him mahram
Mahram
In Islamic sharia legal terminology, a mahram is an unmarriageable kin with whom sexual intercourse would be considered incestuous, a punishable taboo...
, whilst some Sunni Muslim scholars have said it does; see rada (fiqh)
Rada (fiqh)
Radāʿ or ridāʿa is a technical term from Islamic jurisprudence meaning "the suckling which produces the legal impediment to marriage of foster-kinship". The term derives from the infinitive noun of the Arabic word radiʿa or radaʿa...
8 Quranists generally do not believe in the emergence of the Imam Mahdi
Mahdi
In Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will stay on Earth for seven, nine or nineteen years- before the Day of Judgment and, alongside Jesus, will rid the world of wrongdoing, injustice and tyranny.In Shia Islam, the belief in the Mahdi is a "central religious...
or dajjal
Dajjal
al-Masih ad-Dajjal , is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology. He is to appear pretending to be Masih at a time in the future, before Yawm al-Qiyamah , directly comparable to the figures of the Antichrist and Armilus in Christian and Jewish eschatology, respectively.-Name: is a common Arabic word ...
, since they're not mentioned in the Quran.
9 Quranists can eat food produced by Christians and Jews, as instructed in surah 5:5. Also Quranists can eat/drink with both hands, as there is no prohibitations of eating with your left hand in the Quran, in contrast to orthodox muslims who generally forbid using the left hand. This is because the right had is cosidered cleaner due to the tradition of using the left hand in order to clean oneself after having used the toilet.
10 Quranists do not touch the black stone of the kaaba
Kaaba
The Kaaba is a cuboid-shaped building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the most sacred site in Islam. The Qur'an states that the Kaaba was constructed by Abraham, or Ibraheem, in Arabic, and his son Ishmael, or Ismaeel, as said in Arabic, after he had settled in Arabia. The building has a mosque...
during hajj or umrah.
Quranist rejection of orthodox Muslim punishments
Major punishments approved and applied by the orthodox Sunni and Shi'a madhabs for over a millennia that Quranists reject include:- The death penalty for apostatesApostasy in IslamApostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...
, as this punishment is absent in the Quran; and discouraged in suraSuraA sura is a division of the Qur'an, often referred to as a chapter. The term chapter is sometimes avoided, as the suras are of unequal length; the shortest sura has only three ayat while the longest contains 286 ayat...
s such as 2:256 or 18:29. - Stoning for adultery. Instead, Quranists follow the quran's prescribed punishment of 100 lashings as the Quran does not differentiate between fornicators or adulterers in this punishment, by use of the word 'Zina' (Arabic: الزنا ) in surah 24:2. The orthodox Shariah law applies lashings only to fornicators as per the Quran, but stoning to adulterers as per Sunnah;
- The requirement that the four witnesses of zinaZina (Arabic)Zinā or Zināʾ is generally defined by Islamic Law as unlawful sexual intercourse, i.e. intercourse between a man and a woman who are not married to one another or in a state of lawful concubinage based on ownership...
must have seen clear penetration during the coitus (though this stringent requirement is rarely applied in practice), as the Quran only requires four witnesses to zina. - Death penalty of homosexuals. The Quran mentions no punishment for homosexuality other than in a specific reference to prophet Lut's community, a punishment which God alone administers. Quranists instead tend to view homosexuality as a sin that is punishable by God alone in the afterlife;
- Death penalty for practitioners of witchcraft or sorcerers.
Overview
Quranists consider themselves to follow original Islam; whereas Sunni theology developed over time till the 10th century, and Shia theology developed after the killing of Ali's son Husayn in 680.Liberal movements within Islam
Liberal movements within Islam
Progressive Muslims have produced a considerable body of liberal thought within Islam or "progressive Islam" ; but some consider progressive Islam and liberal Islam as two distinct movements)...
include Quranists who interpret Islam as "a belief system committed to the liberal values of a democratic world" under narrow Hudud (Arabic حدود). Other quranists remain orthodox in their approach to human rights and broader in the application of rules and punishments, supporting punishments such as amputation of the hand for theft, cruficixion, amputation and execution of enemies
Most Quranists accept the same Arabic Quran used by other Muslims, with only the minority 'submitter' sect reverting to what they claim is the original Quran by removing ayats 9:128-9 to fit their 'Quran Code 19' theology.
Quranist groups are increasingly translating the Arabic Quran themselves into other languages, because most translations by orthodox Muslim groups contain perceived innovations and mistranslations to fit the orthodox ideology. Orthodox Qurans are replete with bracketed comments — based on the sunnah — throughout the ayats to lead the reader to interpret the Quran by the way of the translator, even though the bracketed comments are absent from the Arabic Quran, and such bracketed comments appear less frequently — if at all — in Quranist translations.
Some Muslims have suggested that the original prohibition against Hadith led to the Golden Age of Islam, as the Quran was able to stand up to critical thinking and questioning; and Muslims were thus schooled to be inquisitive and seek answers to every quandary. They posit that the increased reliance on Hadith, which was allegedly illogical and required the suspension of disbelief
Suspension of disbelief
Suspension of disbelief or "willing suspension of disbelief" is a formula for justifying the use of fantastic or non-realistic elements in literary works of fiction...
, led to the eventual downfall of scholastic pursuits in the religion.
Notable
Umar ibn al-Khattab was one of the earliest staunch opponenets of hadith. In the hadith of Umar's ban on hadithHadith of Umar's ban on hadith
Some recorded oral tradition among Muslims is about Umar's ban on hadith.Although the narration is prominently quoted and referred to, it is not given any formal name, in contrast to other hadith such as the Hadith of the pond of Khumm or the Hadith of Qur'an and Sunnah.-Introduction:Most Sunnis...
he forbade the writing down of hadiths.
Syed Ahmed Khan
Syed Ahmed Khan
Javad-ud Daula, Arif Jang, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, KCSI , commonly known as Sir Syed, was an Indian educator and politician, and an Islamic reformer and modernist...
(1817–1898) is often considered the founder of the modernist movement within Islam, noted for his application of "rational science" to the Quran and Hadith and his conclusion that the Hadith were not legally binding on Muslims. His student, Chiragh ‘Ali, went further, suggesting all the hadith were fabrications.
Ahmed Subhy Mansour
Ahmed Subhy Mansour
Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour , born March 1, 1949, in Abu Harair, Kafr Saqr, Sharqia, Egypt is an Egyptian-born noted Islamic scholar and cleric, with expertise in Islamic history, culture, theology, and politics...
is a recognised Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic scholar and cleric, with expertise in Islamic history, culture, theology, and politics. He founded a small group of Quranists, but was exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
d from Egypt and is now living in the United States as a political refugee.
One of his followers, Egyptian blogger Reda Abdel-Rahman was freed on January 2009 after being detained for a year. Abdel-Rahman was imprisoned for writing blogs that reject the sunnah and hadith, and claimed he was tortured in order to reveal the password to his e-mail. Sheikh Mansour was fired from Al-Azhar University
Al-Azhar University
Al-Azhar University is an educational institute in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 970~972 as a madrasa, it is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Islamic learning in the world. It is the oldest degree-granting university in Egypt. In 1961 non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.It is...
after expressing his hadith rejector views. One of Mansour's fellow Islamic scholars at Al Azhar University Sheik Jamal Tahir took up the same Quran alone stance.
Edip Yuksel
Edip Yuksel
Edip Yuksel is an American intellectual considered one of the prime figures in the modern Islamic reform and Qur'an alone movements...
is a Turkish advocate for the Quraniyoon movement and has gained much attention through his books and speeches.
Mohammed Shahrour also rejects Hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
and has his own methods of interpreting the Qur'an.
Shabbir Ahmed
Shabbir Ahmed (writer)
Shabbir Ahmed is a writer of books in both Urdu and English on history and Islam. He was born in Pakistan in 1947 and currently resides in Florida, United States. A medical doctor by profession, he started his military career in the Pakistan Army under Emergency Commission as a young Captain in 1971...
is the author of “The Qur’an As It Explains Itself”, or QXP, a non-literal translation of the meaning of the Qur'an in plain English. He interprets the meaning of the words and phrases in Quran by comparing them to other instances where they are used elsewhere in the Qur'an.
The 1986 Malaysian book "Hadith: A Re-evaluation" by Kassim Ahmad was met with controversy and some scholars declared him an apostate from Islam for suggesting that "“the hadith are sectarian, anti-science, anti-reason and anti-women". His students currently run a Quranist magazine.
As many Quranists have a very individualistic interpretation of the Qur'an, rejecting sectarianism and organised religion as a general rule, it is difficult to gather an accurate estimate of the number of Quranists in the world today by doing a study of the Quranist organisations that exist. Another difficulty in determining their prevalence is the possible fear of persecution due to being regarded as apostates
Apostasy in Islam
Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...
and therefore deserving of the death penalty by many traditional scholars like Yousef Elbadry, Mahmoud Ashour, Mohammed Ra'fat Othman and Mustafa Al-Shak'a.
Non-Muslim scholars of Islam, such as Maurice Bucaille
Maurice Bucaille
Maurice Bucaille , son of Maurice and Marie Bucaille, was a French medical doctor, member of the French Society of Egyptology, and an author. Bucaille practiced medicine from 1945–82 and was a specialist in gastroenterology. In 1973, Bucaille was appointed family physician to King Faisal of Saudi...
, John Esposito
John Esposito
John Louis Esposito is a professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University...
, Joseph Schacht
Joseph Schacht
Joseph Schacht, born in Ratibor, 15 March 1902, died in Englewood, 1 August 1969, was a British-German professor of Arabic and Islam at Columbia University in New York. He was the leading Western scholar on Islamic law, whose Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence is still considered a centrally...
and Cyrus Hamlin
Cyrus Hamlin
Cyrus Hamlin was an American Congregational missionary and educator, the father of A. D. F. Hamlin....
also criticise Hadith.
The Ahle Qur'an
"Ahle Qur’an" is an organisation formed by Abdullah Chakralawi, rely entirely on the chapters and verses of the Qur’an. Chakralawi's position was that the Qur’an itself was the most perfect source of tradition and could be exclusively followed. According to Chakralawi, MuhammadMuhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
could receive only one form of revelation (wahy
Wahy
Wahi is the Arabic word for revelation. In Islamic context, it refers to the revelations of God to his prophets, for all humankind. In Islam, the Qur'an is considered a wahi given to Muhammad.-Awha:...
), and that was the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
. He argues that the Qur'an was the only record of divine wisdom, the only source of Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
's teachings, and that it superseded the entire corpus of hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
, which came later. Ahle Quran scholars may use Tafsir
Tafsir
Tafseer is the Arabic word for exegesis or commentary, usually of the Qur'an. Ta'wīl is a subset of tafsir and refers to esoteric or mystical interpretation. An author of tafsir is a mufassir .- Etymology :...
when pursuing the interpretations of the Quran.
Tolu-e-Islam
Tolu-e-Islam ("Resurgence of Islam") is an organization based in Pakistan, with followers throughout the world.The movement was initiated by Ghulam Ahmed Pervez
Ghulam Ahmed Pervez
Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez was a prominent Islamic scholar, famous in the area around Lahore. He urged the Muslims to ponder deeply over the Message of the Quran. He considered Islam a din , a form of government, a system of government like democracy, autocracy, or socialism...
, a Qur'anic scholar. In his writings and speeches, he re-interpreted Qur'anic verses with little or no emphasis on hadith. Tolu-e-Islam followers do not reject all hadiths; however, they only accept hadiths which "are in accordance with the Quran or do not stain the character of the Prophet or his companions". The organization is loosely controlled. The organization publishes and distributes books, pamphlets, and recordings of Pervez's teachings.
United Submitters International
Although different from other Quranists nowadays in many ways, like having faith that Rashad Khalifa was the Messenger of the Covenant mentioned in chapter 3 verse 81 and chapter 33 verse 7 of the Quran, the term Quranists was closely associated with the late Rashad KhalifaRashad Khalifa
Rashad Khalifa was an Egyptian-American biochemist, closely associated with the United Submitters International. He was assassinated in 1990.-Life:Khalifa was born in Egypt on November 19, 1935...
, founder of the United Submitters International
United Submitters International
United Submitters International is a reformist moderate Islamic religious community, following the teachings of Rashad Khalifa who is regarded in this faith as God's messenger of the Covenant, who claims to be prophesied in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Quran. Majority of Muslims...
. The group popularized the phrase: The Qur'an, the whole Qur'an, and nothing but the Qur'an. After Khalifa declared himself the Messenger of the Covenant, he was rejected by orthodox scholars as an apostate of Islam. Later, he was assassinated in 1990 by a sunni terrorist group. His followers believe that there is a mathematical structure in the Qur'an, based on the number 19.
Criticism
According to Sunni Orthodoxy, the hadith literature is an integral part of the Muslim faith. The 11th century Andalusian MalikiMaliki
The ' madhhab is one of the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. It is the second-largest of the four schools, followed by approximately 25% of Muslims, mostly in North Africa, West Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and in some parts of Saudi Arabia...
theologian and scholar Ibn Abd al-Barr
Yusuf ibn abd al-Barr
Yusuf ibn Abdallah ibn Mohammed ibn Abd al-Barr, Abu Umar al-Namari al-Andalusi al-Qurtubi al-Maliki, commonly known as Ibn Abd-al-Barr was a famous Sunni Maliki Islamic Scholar...
wrote in his Jami' Bayan al-'Ilm wa Fadlihi (Compendium Exposing the Nature of Knowledge and Its Immense Merit):
Contemporary scholars such as Gibril Haddad
Gibril Haddad
-Biography:Born in 1960 in Beirut, Lebanon, Haddad studied French Literature at Columbia University. After studying in Damascus, Syria, from 1997 to 2006, he currently lives in Brunei and is an Islamic author and translator....
have commented on the apostatic nature of a wholesale denial of the probativeness of the Sunnah according to Sunni Orthodoxy, writing "it cannot be imagined that one reject the entire probativeness of the Sunna and remain a Muslim". In his essay, "The Probativeness of the Sunna", Haddad explains that the foundation of Islam is the Qur'an, which cannot be described as God's word when one unconditionally rejects the probativeness of the Sunna (since the fact that the Qur'an is God's Word was not established by other than Muhammad's explicit statement that this was God's Word and His Book). As this statement is part of the Sunna/Hadith Literature, to say that the Sunna is no proof is no different than a denial of an integral part of the religion according to Haddad. He also quotes from Yusuf ibn abd al-Barr
Yusuf ibn abd al-Barr
Yusuf ibn Abdallah ibn Mohammed ibn Abd al-Barr, Abu Umar al-Namari al-Andalusi al-Qurtubi al-Maliki, commonly known as Ibn Abd-al-Barr was a famous Sunni Maliki Islamic Scholar...
, Ibn Hazm
Ibn Hazm
Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm ) was an Andalusian philosopher, litterateur, psychologist, historian, jurist and theologian born in Córdoba, present-day Spain...
as well as other renowned early traditional scholars such as al-Shafi'i
Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi`i
Abū ʿAbdullāh Muhammad ibn Idrīs al-Shafiʿī was a Muslim jurist, who lived from 767 CE to 820 CE. He was active in juridical matters and his teaching eventually led to the Shafi'i school of fiqh named after him. Hence he is often called Imam al-Shafi'i...
, al-Nawawi, Qadi Ayyad and Ibn Hajar
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
Al-Haafidh Shihabuddin Abu'l-Fadl Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad, better known as Ibn Hajar due to the fame of his forefathers, al-Asqalani due to his family origin , was a medieval Shafiite Sunni scholar of Islam who represents the entire realm of the Sunni world in the field of Hadith...
.
The Grand Mufti of Pakistan Muhammad Rafi Usmani
Muhammad Rafi Usmani
Muhammad Rafi Uthmani is the renowned religious authority in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He is serving as the crrent Grand Mufti of Pakistan and President of Darul Uloom Karachi. He is the son of the late Mufti Muhammad Shafi Uthmani, the founder of Darul Ulum Karachi. He is recognized for...
has also criticised Quranists in his lecture Munkareen Hadith (refuters of Hadith); he states:
In response to criticisms such as the above, Qur'anists point out that the judgments of Muhammad were based solely on the Qur'an (verses 5:48 and 4:105) and that it is what distinguishes right from wrong (verse 2:185), arguing that the need for Hadith and Sunnah are redundant because of their possession of the Qur'an.
See also
- Ahmed Subhy Mansour#Quranists
- Edip YukselEdip YukselEdip Yuksel is an American intellectual considered one of the prime figures in the modern Islamic reform and Qur'an alone movements...
- Liberal movements within IslamLiberal movements within IslamProgressive Muslims have produced a considerable body of liberal thought within Islam or "progressive Islam" ; but some consider progressive Islam and liberal Islam as two distinct movements)...
- Qur'an and SunnahQur'an and SunnahQur'an and Sunnah is an often quoted Islamic term regarding the sources of Islam. Muslims hold that Islam is derived from two sources: one being infallible and containing compressed information — the Qur'an — and another being a detailed explanation of the everyday application of the principles...
- Sola scripturaSola scripturaSola scriptura is the doctrine that the Bible contains all knowledge necessary for salvation and holiness. Consequently, sola scriptura demands that only those doctrines are to be admitted or confessed that are found directly within or indirectly by using valid logical deduction or valid...
- Karaism
- BibliolatryBibliolatryBibliolatry is the worship of a particular book. See also Idolatry and Idolatry and Christianity.-Bibliolatry in Christianity:...
- Criticism of HadithCriticism of HadithCriticism of Hadith refers to critique directed towards canonised reports concerning the deeds and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, known as the Hadith...
- Hadith of Umar's ban on hadithHadith of Umar's ban on hadithSome recorded oral tradition among Muslims is about Umar's ban on hadith.Although the narration is prominently quoted and referred to, it is not given any formal name, in contrast to other hadith such as the Hadith of the pond of Khumm or the Hadith of Qur'an and Sunnah.-Introduction:Most Sunnis...
Further reading
- Daniel Brown, Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought ISBN 0-521-65394-0
- Aisha Y. Musa, Hadith as Scripture: Discussions on the Authority of Prophetic Traditions in Islam, New York: Palgrave, 2008 ISBN 0-230-60535-4
External links
- Submission Website
- International Quranic Center-English
- Submission Web Site (United Submitters International website)
- QuranicPath (Quran Alone website with articles, audio Quran, relevant links etc.)
- Quran alone (Website promoting the teachings of Dr. Khalifa)
- Free-minds.org (Quran English translation by Quranists 19.org)
- Quranists Network (A network providing articles, external blogs and a forum for discussion purposes.)
- islamic-research.org (A website promoting True Islam using the Quran Alone.)
- Quran Alone Social Network (A social network for Muslims who believe in the Quran Alone.)
- QuranWiki (A Quranic Encyclopedia.)